“Do It in the Dark,” an energy conservation competition between the four dorms on campus, began in January and will run until the end of May.
Sponsored by DU’s Environmental Team (DUET), the contest pits dorm against dorm in a challenge for students to lower their building’s monthly energy bill by the largest percentage over the course of five months.
Winners are determined by comparing current monthly energy consumption to the same period last year. Monthly prizes will be awarded as well as a grand prize at the end of the competition. Prizes are mainly gift certificates for locations on or around campus.
January’s winner will be awarded Tokyo Joe’s gift certificates.
Reducing energy consumption on campus is just one of the goals of DUET this year. President Lyndsay Thompson says the organization also hopes to increase recycling on campus and educate students on environmental issues.
DU has taken a few steps toward achieving DUET’s goals. Three of the buildings on campus are powered by wind energy.
However, Thompson calls the recycling situation at DU “terrible,” as there are only 10 recycling stations on campus. This quarter, Thompson says DUET will be working to get more recycling bins around campus as well as more people to empty them.
Thompson believes that students also need to be making an effort for the environment. “Students can do so many things to protect the environment,” said Thompson. “Conserve everything, not just energy. Don’t leave the water on, recycle, don’t litter and watch what you throw away. Don’t drive when you can walk, ride your bike or take the light rail. Students don’t think that doing these helps, but it does.”
Last Tuesday, DUET showed “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s documentary warning about global warming and its effects, as a way to educate students about environmental issues and bring awareness to the “Do It in the Dark” program.
“If we can get students in the habit of conserving electricity and heat now, they will carry it with them the rest of their lives, having a significant impact,” said Thompson when explaining how the movie connected with the organization’s current project.
In the film, Al Gore refutes today’s assumption that “the Earth is so big, we can’t possibly have any lasting impact on it.”
Gore calls global warming a “moral issue” because “what we take for granted might not be here for our children.”
He used Hurricane Katrina as an example of the terrible consequences of global warming. As more heat is trapped in the atmosphere, the oceans get warmer, causing stronger storms around the world.
Thompson’s hope in showing this movie was that it “empowered” students to do something about the issues of global warming. “Being aware of a problem and continuing with destructive habits is as bad, if not worse, than being ignorant of a problem,” she said.B
This idea was spoken about often throughout the movie. “We have everything we need” to solve the problem, said Gore, but “are we as Americans capable of doing great things even if they are difficult?”
DUET, previously DU Recycles, has been around since 2001. For more information on this and other campaigns, visit http://www.projectduet.com.
